PUBLICATIONS

 

A Year of Resistance Inside Iran’s Prisons Against Executions

January 21, 2025

Executions are soaring in Iran, and they are carried out without due process, disproportionally against members of minority communities, and increasingly against protesters, dissidents, and others convicted of political crimes. Inmates in prisons across Iran have taken the lead in protesting the Islamic Republic’s use of the death penalty to terrorize and silence its population, staging hunger strikes every Tuesday to spotlight this state-sanctioned murder. This CHRI Special Briefing brings the voices of the strikers to the global community.

Killed because you are a woman

January 6, 2025

Killed by husbands or fathers for fleeing an abusive forced marriage, seeking a divorce, or allegedly “dishonoring” the family, women are being killed in Iran by male family members in alarming numbers. The Iranian government is complicit in this violence, as it refuses to take legal or practical measures to address a crisis affecting women across the country. This CHRI briefing examines the skyrocketing cases of femicides across Iran, and the laws and policies in Iran that not only fail to protect women from this lethal violence but encourage it.

Iran Wages War Against Women with Draconian New Hijab Law

December 13, 2024

This CHRI briefing examines Iran’s new “Law to Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab,” which mandates the wearing of the hijab by women in all spheres of life. The law’s draconian punishments for noncompliance, including heavy fines, lashing, imprisonment, and, for certain hijab-related offenses, even the death penalty, are detailed. The implications of the law’s requirement that citizens inform on one another and help enforce the law, which will promote vigilante violence against women, are also discussed.

Five Years Later, Still No Justice for Iran’s Massacre of November 2019 Protesters

November 13, 2024

The protests that erupted across Iran in November 2019 marked a turning point: they reflected growing societal rage against the Islamic Republic; the regime’s willingness to use lethal force to suppress protest; and the judiciary’s use of new procedures to prevent the defense of protesters in Iran’s courts. This CHRI Special Briefing uncovers new details of the state’s violence and examines the ongoing struggle to seek justice for the more than one thousand protesters killed by state forces.

The Death Penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran – December 2023

December 23, 2023

In CHRI’s Sept. 2022 - Dec. 2023 submission to the UN on the death penalty, we examine the Islamic Republic’s status as a global leader in executions, including juvenile executions, its growing use of the death penalty against protesters to instill fear and suppress dissent, its disproportionate use against minorities, its discriminatory use against women, and its application after trials in which the most basic elements of due process have been denied.

Massacre in Javanrud: State Atrocities Against Protesters in Iran’s Kurdish Regions

September 1, 2023

Massacres by Islamic Republic forces against protesters in the Kurdish city of Javanrud taking part in the “Women Life Freedom” uprising in Fall 2022, are exposed in this in-depth report. Security forces killed unarmed civilians, including one child, and injured many dozens. Large numbers were arbitrarily arrested, and then beaten and tortured in state custody, including children. The report, which is based on hundreds of photos, videos, and interviews with 38 eyewitnesses, also identifies some of the perpetrators of these atrocities, and provides recommendations for the international community.

Recommendations for the International Community on Iran

February 6, 2023

This CHRI policy briefing lays out updated, actionable recommendations that governments around the world can take to address the Islamic Republic’s violent repression of peaceful protest and basic human rights. The diplomatic, political and economic measures outlined here provide a specific blueprint for policymakers aimed at increasing the international costs to the Iranian authorities of their continuing lethal violence against protesters and the people of Iran.

Recommendations for the U.S. Congress on Iran

December 21, 2022

These recommendations for members of the U.S. Congress detail specific actions lawmakers can take, with their constituents, as members of foreign delegations visiting other countries, and with the U.S. Department of State, to support freedom of expression and the right to protest in Iran, and to hold Islamic Republic officials accountable for their lethal violence against the protesters in Iran who are demanding their basic human rights.

New Briefing: International Action Urgently Needed to Stop Carnage in Iran

October 18, 2022

This policy briefing addresses the urgent for need for collective international action to address the violent state suppression of peaceful protests in Iran. It provides specific recommendations for the Biden Administration and the broader international community, aimed at imposing meaningful diplomatic, political and economic costs on the Iranian authorities for the state atrocities being committed by the Islamic Republic, especially against women and children.

Q&A Prioritizing Human Rights in Iran: A New U.S. Foreign Policy Approach

August 4, 2022

This Q&A addresses questions regarding CHRI's recommendations to the U.S. government that human rights be promoted as a policy stream equal in importance to other political, economic and strategic policy streams. It argues that prioritizing human rights does not undermine the nuclear negotiations or the dissidents it seeks to support, is not a fig leaf for regime change, and that supporting the voices and rights of civil society is the most effective means to influence Iranian state behavior.

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Policy Briefing: Human Rights in Iran and U.S. National Security Interests

June 13, 2022

This policy briefing reveals the cost to U.S. national security interests of the human rights crisis in Iran, and provides detailed recommendations for the US government on ways to impact destabilizing Islamic Republic policies by recognizing the key role of the Iranian people, amplifying the voices of civil society in Iran, promoting international human rights mechanisms and strengthening human rights sanctions.